Edinburgh Tradfest just launched its 10th festival programme of traditional live music, talks, podcasts, storytelling, ceilidhs, dance, workshops and new commissions taking place at various venues across the City.
The Festival returns with a packed programme of live music events including Highland fiddle player Duncan Chisholm and his band who will kick off the festival on Friday 29 April.
Newly commissioned for this year is Come All Ye by Phil Alexander (Moishe’s Bagel) celebrating the impact that many immigrants have made on the cultural life of Scotland and Bogha-Frois aka ‘Queer Voices in Folk’ – a community of queer folk musicians based in Scotland who will be curating a line-up of bands including Hebridean trio Hecla, and Madderam an up-and-coming five-piece band and finalists at the Na Trad Awards.
Bogha-Frois will also be involved in a live storytelling event (and associated workshops) at the Scottish Storytelling Centre – Queer Folks’ Tales – which will be included on the festival’s latest podcast series which will be released next month.
Other highlights included in this year’s programme are twice-nominated Mercury Music Prize nominee and multiple-award winner at the BBC Radio Two Folk awards Eliza Carthy performing with her legendary father Martin Carthy, Shooglenifty with a supercharged set of new tunes and old favourites, ingenious Finnish ‘nordgrass’ fiddle music from Frigg, harmonious and playful vocals from Sian (Ceitlin Lilidh, Eilidh Cormack and Ellen MacDonald) and US classic banjo artist Aaron Jonah Lewis.
In partnership with the University of Edinburgh Celtic and Scottish Studies, the festival will present their second Rebellious Truth talk which will address gender inequality in traditional music.
Tradfest will also count with various live storytelling events. These include Hillsook Weddeen a story about a Hillswick Wedding embedded in Shetland folklore performed by comedian, storyteller and filmmaker Marjolein Robertson and Stories from the Kist in Scots and Doric hosted by Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches with Tim Porteus, Jackie Ross and Jess Smith; Learning from the Kist is an accompanying workshop for people looking to improve their storytelling technique, led by Donald Smith and Ruth Kirkpatrick.
Daniel Abercrombie, Programme & Events Manager at Scottish Storytelling Centre said: “We are delighted to be presenting a rich programme of in person storytelling, music and dance events and workshops as part of this year’s Edinburgh Tradfest. Spring is in the air and there is many a tale to tell.”
For more information on the line-up visit: https://edinburghtradfest.com/schedule
